                               ACDSee v1.0
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations on obtaining the first release of ACDSee, the fastest, 
easiest-to-use Windows JPEG viewer currently available!

Current features include:

	* rapid decompression
	* view the image as it is being decompressed
	* easy, lightning-fast image panning, even during decompression 
	* supports 256, 32768, 65536 and 16 million colour modes
	* supports virtually all JFIF compliant image files (.JPG)

We've designed ACDSee to be the best JPEG viewer for Windows possible.  
Instead of sticking in features you'd probably use only once a year, we've
concentrated on making ACDSee small, simple and fast.


Installing ACDSee
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1) Copy the ACDSEE.EXE file anywhere you like 

2) Create an icon for it in Program Manager

3) If you have a copy of CTL3D.DLL in your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory that is
   the same or newer than the copy in the ACDSee distribution, then you
   should just delete the one in the ACDSee distribution file.  Otherwise, 
   you should move the ACDSee CTL3D.DLL [over top of] your older CTL3D.DLL 
   file in WINDOWS\SYSTEM.

4) You will probably want to set up File Manager so that it associates files
   with an extension of JPG with ACDSEE.EXE  This will allow you to view
   JPEG pictures from File Manager by simply double-clicking on them.

   You can do this by first highlighting any JPEG file in File Manager, and 
   then choosing File|Associate... from the menu.  Click on Browse... and
   locate the ACDSEE.EXE program and then hit OK.


Running ACDSee
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can start ACDSee from the Program Manager by double-clicking on its icon.
You will immediately be presented with a File Open dialog where you can
specify a JPEG image to read.

If you have made an association between JPG files and ACDSee, you can also 
start ACDSee from the File Manager by just double clicking on a JPEG file.
You'll probably find this method preferable for browsing around your JPEG
images.  

If the image is larger than the size of the ACDSee window, you can pan 
(scroll) the image either by using the scroll bars or by "grabbing" part
of the image with the mouse cursor and dragging it around.  The latter
method is quite fun, especially on an accelerated video card.  The scrolling
feature can be used while the image is being decompressed for those of
you that don't like to wait.


Options
~~~~~~~

If you prefer the "grab" method of scrolling, you will probably want to 
remove the ugly scroll bars.  You can do this by unchecking 
Options|Use Scroll Bars from the ACDSee menu.

By default, the image is decompressed and displayed 16 lines at a time.
You can change this to a single line at a time by unchecking 
Options|Chunk Decompression.  This may cause the decompression to appear
"smoother", but will slightly slow down the rate of decompression.  On
the other hand, it causes ACDSee to relinquish control to other applications
more often, which makes it "nicer" from a multitasking standpoint.  You
should try this option if you experience CRC errors when transferring
files with the modem in the background while viewing JPEGs.

Options are "remembered" from invocation to invocation, which is nice.


Registration
~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACDSee is "ShareWare".  This entitles you, the customer, to try out 
the software for up to 30 days without obligation to pay for it.

If you use ACDSee beyond the 30 days, you should register it.  Registration
entitles you to free upgrades to the software, which is nice.  You can
easily register by calling a toll free number, and the registration fee
is quite small.

As a reminder, ACDSee will occasionally bring up its About box when you
open a file or quit the application.  This is supposed to be very annoying, 
and will of course cease and desist the moment that you register.

To register, just select Help|Register... or click on the Register button
on the About dialog box.  Then just follow the instructions.


Sample Images
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HAPUNAx.JPG - These are two photographs of Hapuna Beach, taken by the 
              author while on a co-op work term in Hawaii.


Comments, Bug Reports
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please send any comments, suggestions for enhancements or bug reports via 
E-Mail to dhooper@sol.uvic.ca


Known Bugs
~~~~~~~~~~

ACDSee will crash occasionally when several copies are concurrently
decompressing images.  To avoid problems, don't attempt to decompress 
more than two images at the same time.


Possible Future Enhancements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        o support for BMP, GIF, and TGA file formats

        o thumbnail preview mode that quickly extracts thumbnails from a
          directory of images and lets you view any image by just clicking
          on it

        o slideshow

        o support for 4DOS descriptions

        o "fit to screen" option that resizes large images to fit on the
          screen without need for panning

        o speed increases
        
Credits
~~~~~~~

The JPEG decoding routines of ACDSee were built from code written by and 
licensed from Oliver Fromme, author of the world-famous Q-Peg viewer for 
DOS.

To obtain information about either Q-Peg or the decoding routines, download 
the latest version of Q-Peg, available on public FTP sites and computer 
bulletin boards everywhere.

